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New criteria have been issued to calculate the cadastral rent: the photovoltaic panels which are not integrated on the roofs and/or walls of buildings are excluded

The Law of 28 December 2015, n. 208, better known as “Legge di Stabilità”, has newly determined the criteria to be used in order to calculate the cadastral rent of the real estate property with a special usage, i.e. registered in the so-called groups D and group E categories.

Recently The Revenue Agency (“Agenzia delle Entrate”) – Land Registry, Cartography and real estate advertising Management, with the Circular Letter n. 2/E, published on 1 February 2016, has definitively clarified the extent of the new regulation contained in the “Legge di Stabilità”, providing also relevant indications concerning the cadastral estimation of solar panels. The Circular Letter n. 2/E has also outlined new methodologies with reference to the identification and characterization of the real estate in the cadastral registry information system (so-called Docfa procedure).

Article 1, paragraph 21, of the “Legge di Stabilità” provides that “with effects from 1 January 2016, the determination of cadastral rent of the real estate with a special and particular usage, registered in the so-called groups D and group E categories, is carried out, by direct estimate, considering the soil and the buildings, as well as the elements structurally connected to them which increase their quality and usefulness, in the limits of the ordinary appreciation of the property. Machinery, device, equipment and other functional systems to the specific manufacturing process are excluded from such direct estimation“.

According to the “Legge di Stabilitá” is, therefore, possible to distinguish four components of the real estate property that have an important role in the determination of the cadastral estimate:

the soil, that is the part of the land on which the property is situated, as represented in the elaborated cadastral charts;

the constructions, e. any building construction having the characteristics of solidity, stability, volumetric consistency and immobilisation of the ground, performed by any tool of union, regardless of the material with which these works are realized;

the elements that are structurally connected to the ground or to the constructions, which increase their quality and usefulness, e. the elements that, fixed to the ground or to constructions with any instrument, are characterized by an independent utility from the manufacturing process done inside the building;

the various installation components, which are functional for a specific manufacturing process, e.those components directed to specific functions in the manufacturing process and which do not contribute to the building an appreciable utility, even in the case of modification of the production cycle carried out inside of the system.

Through the above mentioned distinction, the Circular Letter n. 2/E of the Revenue Agency has specified that the solar panels integrated into the structure and constituting the roof covering or the walls of buildings must be included among the elements that are structurally connected to the ground or to constructions, which increase the quality and usefulness and, therefore, must be subjected to direct estimation criteria.

Otherwise, the solar panels not integrated on the roofs and walls remain excluded from the estimate cadastre.

The Circular Letter n. 2/E has interpreted in this way the provision contained in Article 1, paragraph 21 of “Legge di Stabilità”, overcoming definitively the orientation of the previous Resolution n. 3/T of 6 November 2008, which expressly included the solar panels in the determination of cadastral rent of the photovoltaic system registered at the land registry office under category D/1.

The expected savings, that the application of Circular Letter will produce for the photovoltaic operators in terms of assessment and settlement of the IMU and TASI tax, will be major.

To guarantee uniformity between the buildings already registered at the land registry office and the buildings subject to new registration, construction or variation, the Circular Letter n. 2/E has also established the principles by means of which operators should calculate the cadastral rent by applying the new criteria, through parcelling out the elements excluded from the cadastral esteem, in any case with effects from 1 January 2016.

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